1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for upgrading firmware of an image forming apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for replacing firmware of an image forming apparatus controlled by a plurality of types of firmware.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional monitoring system remotely monitors an operation state of a peripheral device, such as an image forming apparatus. In an environment in which the monitoring system like this is used, a conventional method upgrades firmware of an image forming apparatus in the following manner.
That is, in the case where it is necessary to upgrade the firmware due to previously performed version upgrading or an error occurring on the image forming apparatus, a service person in charge must personally visit the customer's business location, where the image forming apparatus is installed. In this case, the service person in charge manually upgrades the firmware. Accordingly, in the conventional method, high costs for upgrading the firmware may arise.
In this regard, in recent years, the conventional method stores firmware on a rewritable storage device, such as a flash memory, and transmits the firmware by an e-mail or other data communication method via the Internet to upgrade the firmware.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-165734 discusses a method for preventing the productivity from deteriorating in the case where it is necessary to immediately upgrade firmware due to an error that has occurred on the image forming apparatus.
In the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-165734, in the image forming apparatus on which an error on the firmware has occurred and whose firmware is to be upgraded with new firmware, it is determined which module is controlled by the new firmware. Furthermore, the operation of the module controlled by the new firmware, of control modules for an image reading unit or an image forming unit, is stopped while the operation of the other modules are continued.